Paul Ryan: ‘We’re not talking small ball anymore’

“The way I hope this goes is the president will say, ‘All right, I agree with you Republicans on A, B, and C, so let’s work together on those things. But on X, Y, and Z, I don’t agree with you.’ And on those issues, we owe it to the country to give them a real choice–real alternatives, how we would do things differently, where we would take the country. There’s nothing short of debating what America’s going to be for the next century.

“We’re not talking small ball anymore. This is not school uniforms or prescription drugs. This is debt crisis, the economy. Is America going to be the leader in the 21st century or not? Are we going to have what I would an opportunity society with a social safety net, or are we going to go over and become a social democracy, a cradle to grave welfare state, like a European kind of a society. And the difference in the next few years will determine what that outcome will be.”